A while back I posted a story about a group of young Iranian fans of Pharrell Williams, who were sentenced to jail time & 91 lashes for making their own video of the American pop star’s hit song “Happy.”

Apparently in Iran if you have better taste in music and are a fan of heavy metal or more so if you play in a heavy metal band — the punishment is far worse.

According to a message received by Metal Nation Radio, two members of Iranian metal band, Confess, have been arrested by the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution and have been held in Iran’s notorious Evin prison since November of last year until their release earlier this month after posting bail.

“Beatings, torture, mock executions and brutal interrogations are the norm at Evin prison, where for four decades the anguished cries of prisoners have been swallowed up by the drab walls of the low-slung lockup in northwestern Tehran. Standing at the foot of the Alborz Mountains, it is home to an estimated 15,000 inmates, including killers, thieves and rapists. But the prison has also held ayatollahs, journalists, intellectuals and dissidents over the years…”

During their time in jail the two metalheads were allegedly kept in solitary confinement. They are currently facing charges of blasphemy, advertising against the system, forming and running an illegal and underground band and recording label in a musical genre considered to be Satanic, writing lyrics that are anti-religious, atheistic, political, and anarchistic and granting interviews to forbidden foreign radio stations.

They are facing jail time from six months to six years or even worse could face the death-penalty if found guilty of the charge of blasphemy.

If there ever was a country in dire need of a cultural & political revolution its the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Ghoncheh Ghavami, 25, sentenced to one year in an Iranian jail for ‘propaganda against the state.’

Here in the U.S. so called “feminist’s” like comedian Chelsea Handler are fighting for the right to post topless pictures of themselves on social media, meanwhile in Iran a woman gets a jail sentence for attending a sporting event.

Via The UK Daily Mail:

A British woman arrested in Iran after attending a men’s volleyball match has been jailed for a year.

Ghoncheh Ghavami, 25, was accused of ‘propaganda against the regime’. The London graduate was detained as she and women’s rights campaigners tried to enter the Azadi Stadium in Tehran to watch a volleyball game.

Under Iran’s strict Islamic laws, women are forbidden from mixing with male spectators at sporting events.

She was thrown into solitary confinement in Iran’s notorious Evin political prison and was held for more than 100 days, including 41 days in solitary.

I am not a big fan of pop music, but as far songs go I have heard far worse then the Pharrell Williams hit “Happy.” Its actually a pretty catchy tune, even if it is mildly annoying. Earlier this past year six young Iranians, using an Iphone 5S, decided to film and upload their own video for the song (as seen above) to social media.

As you can see Elvis Presley & his pelvis thrusting in the 50’s was far more provocative then anything going on in that video. However those ever-so-peaceful practitioners of the ‘Religion of Peace’ that run the Islamic Republic of Iran didn’t think so.

I mean oh my god, the girls heads were not covered up, the horror!

The three men, of the group of six, who appeared in the video.

Today the six kids were handed down sentences of 91 lashes and 6 months in prison for “obscene behavior.”

Via Reuters:

Another defendant who faced ‘heavier charges’ in relation to the video was handed a suspended sentence of one year in jail and 91 lashes by the authorities on Wednesday, the Iran Wire site quoted Farshid Rofugaran as saying.

He was quoted by Iran Wire as saying the verdicts had not been officially communicated to him and so he could not be completely sure about the information he had gathered.

The sentences are suspended for three years, meaning that if any of the seven is found guilty of a similar offense, the punishment is then carried out, he said without elaborating. Read more…

I don’t really want any more American soldiers sent home in pine boxes draped in flags, because our politicians are trying to force democracy upon the Middle East. But at the same time I hope for a world that the worst thing that happens to young people like the six Iranian youth in that video, is they get mocked for listening to crappy music.

The ever-so-tolerant practitioners of the “Religion of Peace” are at it again. Behzad Taalipasand, Mehdi Reza Omidi (Youhan), Mehdi Dadkhah (Danial) and Amir Hatemi (Youhanna), members of the Church of Iran, were sentenced by officials in that country to 80 lashes each. Their crime? Drinking communion wine and possessing a satellite antenna.

The men were sentenced on October 6 and given their verdict on October 20 with ten days to appeal the sentence after breaking the theocracy’s laws.

I don’t always agree with Robert Fisk’s opinions on matters, particularly to some of his critiques on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East — but there is no doubt that he is one of, if not the very best foreign correspondent out there. American journalists could learn a whole lot, from their British Counterpart Mr. Fisk.

He is in Iran covering the protests that have unfolded after the disputed election results, and rather then “report” on the news from the safety of a hotel room, he was actually out on the streets with the Iranian youth..

He wrote an excellent piece in yesterdays, The Independent, here is a portion of it:

It was Iran’s day of destiny and day of courage. A million of its people marched from Engelob Square to Azadi Square – from the Square of Revolution to the Square of Freedom – beneath the eyes of Tehran’s brutal riot police. The crowds were singing and shouting and laughing and abusing their “President” as “dust”.

Mirhossein Mousavi was among them, riding atop a car amid the exhaust smoke and heat, unsmiling, stunned, unaware that so epic a demonstration could blossom amid the hopelessness of Iran’s post-election bloodshed. He may have officially lost last Friday’s election, but yesterday was his electoral victory parade through the streets of his capital. It ended, inevitably, in gunfire and blood.

Not since the 1979 Iranian Revolution have massed protesters gathered in such numbers, or with such overwhelming popularity, through the boulevards of this torrid, despairing city. They jostled and pushed and crowded through narrow lanes to reach the main highway and then found riot police in steel helmets and batons lined on each side. The people ignored them all. And the cops, horribly outnumbered by these tens of thousands, smiled sheepishly and – to our astonishment – nodded their heads towards the men and women demanding freedom. Who would have believed the government had banned this march?

The protesters’ bravery was all the more staggering because many had already learned of the savage killing of five Iranians on the campus of Tehran University, done to death – according to students – by pistol-firing Basiji militiamen. When I reached the gates of the college yesterday morning, many students were weeping behind the iron fence of the campus, shouting “massacre” and throwing a black cloth across the mesh. That was when the riot police returned and charged into the university grounds once more.

At times, Mousavi’s victory march threatened to crush us amid walls of chanting men and women. They fell into the storm drains and stumbled over broken trees and tried to keep pace with his vehicle, vast streamers of green linen strung out in front of their political leader’s car. They sang in unison, over and over, the same words: “Tanks, guns, Basiji, you have no effect now.” As the government’s helicopters roared overhead, these thousands looked upwards and bayed above the clatter of rotor blades: “Where is my vote?” Clichés come easily during such titanic days, but this was truly a historic moment.

Would it change the arrogance of power which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad demonstrated so rashly just a day earlier, when he loftily invited the opposition – there were reported to be huge crowds protesting on the streets of other Iranian cities yesterday – to be his “friends”, while talking ominously of the “red light” through which Mousavi had driven. Ahmadinejad claimed a 66 per cent victory at the polls, giving Mousavi scarcely 33 per cent. No wonder the crowds yesterday were also singing – and I mean actually singing in chorus – “They have stolen our vote and now they are using it against us.” READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE

I think it is our duty as Americans, as lovers of liberty and freedom to support the youth of Iran and Democracy in Iran. I just haven’t seen anything yet from the Obama administration that shows they even have the vaguest idea of what to do.

A supporter of reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi looks up as she passes below the photographer during a demonstration on June 17, 2009 in Tehran, Iran. (Getty Images)

A poster at the Free Republic summed up Obama’s lack of a backbone and empty rhetoric spewed during his Mid East trip last week, rather nicely:

Supposedly, young people in Iran were inspired by Obama’s Cairo speech. Where is Obama now, when the government is shooting protesters?

Today could have been Obama’s ‘Tear Down This Wall’ moment. He could have offered his support to the courageous Iranians in the streets tonight. He could have recognized those protesters for what they are – fighters in the name of freedom. These kids already respected him and would have been inspired. Instead, his speech was lame and non-committal.

I’m not one of these conservatives who believes liberals are traitors. My problem with liberals is they lack the backbone to stand up against tyranny. It happened during the Cold War and again during the War on Terror..or as Obama now calls it, Man-made disasters. Their political correctness, whether expressed in caution or silence, does not make for effective leadership.

I remember so vividly when Reagan call the Soviet Union the Evil Empire. Liberals cringed, they cried foul. But cut beyond the PC crap and one thing is clear: Reagan was right. And I’ll give George W. Bush credit too. His stand against tyranny was strong whether he was popular or not.

Obama speaks well (teleprompter joke here). But tonight was strong evidence that there’s nothing behind his words. Too many Iranians learned that the hard way tonight.